Set Jetting: Film and TV locations in Greenwich

Greenwich is one of London’s greatest sites for ‘set jetting’ – visiting the locations where so many iconic and beloved films and TV shows were shot. From the photogenic glories of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site to Charlton, Woolwich, Thamesmead and Greenwich Peninsula, there’s not a corner of this amazing borough that hasn’t had its moment on screen.

The Netflix smash-hit Bridgerton, set in the hectic social world of Regency London, makes lavish use of locations like the Queen’s House, built in 1616 for Queen Anne and the UK’s first neoclassical building, Greenwich Park and the magnificent Old Royal Naval College. English Heritage property, Ranger’s House, plays a starring role as the facade of the iconic Bridgerton family home in the drama. Today, you can visit the house to explore the fascinating Wernher Collection, a world-class art collection of over 700 works of art amassed by the 19th-century businessman, Sir Julius Wernher.

Designed by Sir Cristopher Wren and completed in 1712, the Old Royal Naval College has been hailed by screen magazine Empire as ‘the most popular filming location in the world.’ And no wonder: fellow Netflix smash The Crown; Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (2023); Marvel sensation Thor: The Dark World (2013); Les Misérables (2012); The Madness of King George (1994); Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994); and over 90 years of other notable productions filmed here.

You can step into the mesmerising world of Hollywood magic on a Blockbuster Film Tour of the Old Royal Naval College. Guided tours last 60 minutes and take in highlights like the Painted Hall, where Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow famously swung from a chandelier in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).

Naturally, green and gorgeous Greenwich Park, its voluptuous Victorian landscaping intact, has starred in much more than Bridgerton. James-Bond-in-waiting Daniel Craig was filmed here for the crime flick Layer Cake (2005), while Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet donned Georgian frocks to shoot scenes for the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility on its verdant lawns.

Within the Queen’s House, which provided the exterior of ‘Somerset House’ in Bridgerton, stand the elegant cast-iron ‘Tulip Stairs’. ‘Princess Diana’, played by Elizabeth Debicki, ran down these in a memorable scene from The Crown. The carriageway outside was also used in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.

Nearby, grand, heritage-listed Greenwich Market was used for Now You See Me 2 (2016) – stop by for a drink and some traditional British fare at The Coach and Horses, the pub outside which Jack Wilder played his card trick in the film.

Upriver, on buzzing Greenwich Peninsula, you can follow in the footsteps of the world’s most famous and stylish spy – James Bond. Pierce Brosnan found himself on top of The O2, after jumping from a helicopter in the 1999 Bond film, The World is Not Enough, and you can too, with Up at The O2! Or, if you fancy recreating Daniel Craig’s famous boat chase down the Thames in Spectre (2015) but appreciate a more sedate pace, Uber Boat by Thames Clippers connects Greenwich, North Greenwich and Woolwich to central London regularly.

Woolwich’s Calderwood St was a location in the 2006 dystopian science fiction film Children of Men, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine. While you’re there, be sure to check out Woolwich Works – one of London’s most vibrant and more recent cultural precincts. A little further downriver, the eye-catchingly brutalist Thamesmead estate was used in filming both Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the much-more-optimistic gay love story Beautiful Thing (1996).

But Greenwich’s set jetting locations aren’t limited to the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site and the Thames: head inland a little and the sets keep popping up! Just south of the Thames Barrier (an awe-inspiring engineering feat that’s well worth its own visit) is Maryon Park, seen in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 cult classic Blow-Up, starring Vanessa Redgrave and David Hemmings.

Further south, Charlton House, considered by many the finest Jacobean mansion in London and another Greenwich ‘must’, appeared in the 2000 film, Monarch. And, further inland again, the gloriously eccentric Tudor/art deco ensemble of Eltham Palace and Gardens showed its versatility by playing several different parts in The Crown: Bermuda Government House, the HMS Queen Mary and the Queen’s private quarters aboard the Royal Yacht. rooms in the Palace were also used as the Hollywood dressing rooms in Stan & Ollie (2018) and Slugworth's office in Wonka (2024).

Of course, such an abundance of superb filming locations means something new is nearly always filming somewhere around the borough. Greenwich really is London’s Set-Jetting Central!